US-Iran fail to reach agreement in first round of talks, says Vance

ISLAMABAD: The first round of talks between Iran and the US aimed at ending the conflict in the Middle East failed to produce any results. US Vice President J D Vance said the talks ended without an agreement after Iran refused to accept US conditions not to develop nuclear weapons. Vance said at a press conference that US officials were leaving with no agreements in talks with Iran.

‘It's unfortunate that we couldn't reach an agreement. I think it's going to hurt Iran more than the United States. They were not willing to accept our terms. If there were any shortcomings in the talks, it wasn't on the Pakistani side. They did a wonderful job and tried very hard to bridge the gap between the Iranians and us and help us reach an agreement. We've been talking about this for 21 hours now. We discussed a lot of things with the Iranians, but we couldn't reach an agreement,’ said Vance.

Iran has also confirmed that the talks have ended without an agreement. Iran says that there are differences of opinion on issues such as transit rights through the Strait of Hormuz and Iran's nuclear rights. With the failure of the talks, a two-week ceasefire between Iran and the United States is also uncertain. Iran and the United States had agreed on a 14-day ceasefire on Wednesday. US President Donald Trump had initially threatened to restart war with Iran if the talks failed. Iran responded by saying it was ready to face anything.

The talks in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, were attended by Vice President J D Vance, Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. A delegation consisting of Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also participated for Iran. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief Asim Munir mediated.